After more than two weeks of waiting for results, Jaewon Sim ’21 was elected as the undergraduate student-elected trustee.
With 2,386 votes, Sim was elected by a 1,025-vote margin over the closest candidate, Laurence Minter ’21. Sim will assume the position currently held by Dustin Liu ’19 and will begin his two-year term in the fall semester.
Sim, a computer science major from Seoul, Korea, currently serves as the vice president for internal operations on the Cornell Student Assembly. He spearheaded the effort to reform Cornell’s net-print system, which will centralize the printers and provide free printing allocations to students, The Sun previously reported.
In an interview with The Sun, Sim said he will work to make sure Cornell is a safe place for everyone, address the transparency and affordability issues on campus and to “heal the divide” that’s present on campus amidst the current political climate.
“Given the recent issues and national climate, we need the Board of Trustees to provide leadership, to bring groups together and make sure they feel like home,” Sim said. “My goals haven’t changed since when I ran for freshman [representative] in the S.A… I want to make sure that Cornell is a safe environment for all students regardless of their socioeconomic and cultural background.”
Sim also sees his election as an opportunity to advocate for equal resources for minority and international students, who, despite making up 23 percent of the student body, have many concerns “that have not been heard by the Board before,” Sim said.
In his role as trustee, Sim told The Sun that he plans to focus on ensuring Cornell is “socially responsible” and increasing the transparency between the Board and the student body. Even though his term won’t start until August, Sim said he will start reaching out to student groups to make sure “everyone is fairly represented.”
“I’ll do my best to connect the students with the Board of Trustees … because people don’t know what’s going on on different levels of shared governance,” Sim said. “I hope the momentum doesn’t die out just because the election is over. … I hope that everyone who’s part of this campaign will continue doing so.”
This post will be updated.